The life-changing power of female friendships

Friends, as the theme tune goes, will always be there for us. Which is why this Galentine's Day best-selling author Nicola Gill is celebrating the ones we can't live without

galentine's day

Friends, as the theme tune goes, will always be there for us. Which is why this Galentine's Day best-selling author Nicola Gill is celebrating the ones we can't live without

Our society so venerates romantic love that I think we sometimes undervalue the love between friends. And yet friendship, and more specifically female friendship, is a powerful and life-changing thing. It’s an idea I’ve explored in my novel The Neighbours and it’s something I never forget in real life. So, this Galentine's Day here’s a shout out to some of my incredible mates.

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Author Nicola Gill

Galentine's Day - essential friends

The one who knows everything

Hedy and I first met on the school bus. She was one of the cool kids, I… wasn’t. Despite this we quickly became inseparable and since then we’ve been through A LOT together. One of our favourite games is trying to imagine bringing a new person up to speed with everything.

Hedy has always been full of wise advice, but ten years ago retrained as a child and adolescent psychotherapist, which does – I have to say – give her parenting advice even more of a punch. One of the things that astounds me when we’re together is just how much there is to say. We can talk non-stop for three hours and then, on the way home, I’ll still remember something vital I forget to tell her.

The frolleague

My day job is working as an advertising creative, and in that world, it’s usual for copywriters and art directors to work as a team. You often end up spending more time with your creative partner than the person you’re married to so it helps if you like each other!

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Nicola Gill’s novel, The Neighbours, is available now

As soon as I met Sally, I knew that wasn’t going to be a problem. We made each other laugh, worked well together and always had each other’s backs. Advertising creative departments are traditionally blokey (yes, still) and it was wonderful to have another woman to eye roll at where necessary (often). When I had my oldest son Charlie and decided to take a bit of time away from full-time work, one of the only things I really missed was Sally.

The mum friend

I first met Debra because our youngest sons were at nursery together (something Max likes to remind me of often: You’d never have met Debra if it wasn’t for me), and it quickly became clear that we were just as firm friends as the boys – even if I didn’t cry when I couldn’t sit next to her (usually) or insist that if I was Buzz she was Woody,.

She was ridiculously supportive about my attempts to get a publishing deal and thought nothing of striking up a conversation with someone on the number 12 bus if she thought they were a literary agent. For as long as I can remember, Debra and her family have come to us for Boxing Day and the ‘kids’ have made it clear that this is something that must continue even when they’re all married with children of their own.

The age gap friend

The two main characters in The Neighbours become friends despite a big age gap and, like them, I don’t think age is any barrier to friendship. In fact, although Caroline may not be pleased to hear me say this, I often forget she’s seventeen years younger than me. We met through work and quickly realised we shared the same sense of humour, a similar outlook on life and, crucially, an addiction to Married at First Sight, although only the American one. Before long, Caroline had started to refer to me as her ‘work mum’. Hmm, seems like it’s only me that forgets the difference in age.

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Nicola and Caroline

Obviously, Caroline and I are at different stages of life. But that doesn’t mean we can’t understand each other’s ups and downs. And it also means I get to ‘borrow’ her baby girl when I need to.

The mentor friend

Not only is Gemma a brilliant mate, but she’s also always one of the first people I get to look at early drafts of my books (also, during particularly insecure phases, emails and even tweets). Feedback is a tricky thing for writers. We know we need it, pretend to like it but often find it difficult to hear. Which is why it's important to show work to the right people. Let's face it, it's unlikely my mum will be brutally honest. Gemma is honest but not brutal and, as an excellent writer and editor, very good at pointing me in the right direction. She read about a zillion early drafts of The Neighbours and there aren’t enough Negronis in the world to thank her properly. So on this Galentine's Day I'm fixing that.

* Nicola Gill’s debut novel, The Neighbours (Avon), is available in all formats now

Maria Coole

Maria Coole is a contributing editor on Marie Claire.

Hello Marie Claire readers – you have reached your daily destination. I really hope you’re enjoying our reads and I'm very interested to know what you shared, liked and didn’t like (gah, it happens) by emailing me at: maria.coole@freelance.ti-media.com

But if you fancy finding out who you’re venting to then let me tell you I’m the one on the team that remembers the Spice Girls the first time round. I confidently predicted they’d be a one-hit wonder in the pages of Bliss magazine where I was deputy editor through the second half of the 90s. Having soundly killed any career ambitions in music journalism I’ve managed to keep myself in glow-boosting moisturisers and theatre tickets with a centuries-spanning career in journalism.

Yes, predating t’internet, when 'I’ll fax you' was grunted down a phone with a cord attached to it; when Glastonbury was still accessible by casually going under or over a flimsy fence; when gatecrashing a Foo Fighters aftershow party was easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy and tapping Dave Grohl on the shoulder was... oh sorry I like to ramble.

Originally born and bred in that there Welsh seaside town kindly given a new lease of life by Gavin & Stacey, I started out as a junior writer for the Girl Guides and eventually earned enough Brownie points to move on and have a blast as deputy editor of Bliss, New Woman and editor of People newspaper magazine. I was on the launch team of Look in 2007 - where I stuck around as deputy editor and acting editor for almost ten years - shaping a magazine and website at the forefront of body positivity, mental wellbeing and empowering features. More recently, I’ve been Closer executive editor, assistant editor at the Financial Times’s How To Spend It (yes thanks, no probs with that life skill) and now I’m making my inner fangirl’s dream come true by working on this agenda-setting brand, the one that inspired me to become a journalist when Marie Claire launched back in 1988.

I’m a theatre addict, lover of Marvel franchises, most hard cheeses, all types of trees, half-price Itsu, cats, Dr Who, cherry tomatoes, Curly-Wurly, cats, blueberries, cats, boiled eggs, cats, maxi dresses, cats, Adidas shelltops, cats and their kittens. I’ve never knowingly operated any household white goods and once served Ripples as a main course. And finally, always remember what the late great Nora Ephron said, ‘Everything is copy.’